Mission Statement

From early history to the present day, the Catholic Church has established a rightful place in the educational work of society and based its mission upon these claims.

Jesus himself was a teacher and his ministry embraced all peoples in all walks of life.

His example requires the Church to serve the individual and the wider community.  Education is an important part of the service which the Church provides.

The Church has to be active in the public educational process and concerned with the view of humanity which has a need for education.

Here at Saints Gabriel and Raphael Catholic School, we strive to ensure that the school is Christ centred. It is a community of faith that seeks to promote the Gospel, that has concern for the whole child and where our pupils can learn, grow and develop.

Our mission “A Catholic Family Working and Learning Together,” encompasses strong links between Parish, home and school.

Catholic        a caring Christian community in action.

Family            we seek to provide a happy, loving welcoming secure environment rooted on Gospel values and the love of                                             Christ.

Working        doing our best with the abilities we have.

Learning       we seek to provide a broad, balanced whole curriculum permeated with Catholic ethos.            

Together       we do our best to identify, develop and share our God –given talents with one another so that EVERY                                             individual is developed to the full.

We are an Easter people, redeemed and made whole by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This faith in Jesus Christ provides us with a Catholic educational belief which provides a secure educational philosophy within which we work.

• We believe that human beings have a divine origin and eternal destiny. All created in the image of God.
• We believe that each individual is both unique and equal to others, regardless of sex, nationality, colour, creed, class, intellectual ability or emotional, social or physical handicap.
• We believe that the whole person has responsibility to him/herself and the community and is not a lone isolated being.
• We believe that all people are shaped through a process of love and relationship with others.
• We believe that education is a gift from one person to another.  It takes place in communities, the home, the school, the parish and due to technology, from one side of the world to the other and beyond.

Any Catholic school should have a “distinctive nature” offering a view of the way of life in which beliefs are put into practice.  The distinctive features of Saints Gabriel and Raphael Catholic Primary School are based upon the Vision statement of the school which comes from the Gospel according to Saint John,

                                                            “to love God and to love each other.’

Catholic beliefs permeate all education decisions and certainly in the way we interpret the law, the policies and the way we react to policy.  The quality of our decisions and actions are not to be judged solely upon the ease with which they fit within our rights under the law but primarily by the way with which they reside within the principles and values of our faith.  This establishes and important difference between Catholic schools and other schools.

Saints Gabriel and Raphael Catholic School carries the moral obligation of example, sacrifice and witness in all its contracts within its locality and the Catholic community of the Rhondda.  This obligation requires us to support what is best for all those who send their children to our school.

• The obligation requires us to find an approach to curricular planning which recognises that the fundamental purpose of Catholic Education must be seen in action; in how the curriculum is organised, resourced, taught and recorded.
• The obligation requires us to develop, as teachers, so that we can offer the best to the children in our school.
• The obligation requires us to develop, as additional practitioners, so that we can offer the best to the children in our school.
• It requires the full co-operation between school and home, as it is the parents, who are the first to educate their children.

Finally, and the most importantly, the R.E. Programme must be distinctive both in what is taught, through rich liturgical provision, in good relationships and a fostering of the talents of those in the community. We aim to form young people who are not only academically accomplished but spiritually alert, aware of their culture and encouraged to be the best that they can be, striving for the highest expectations in all aspects of school life